Monthly Archives: April 2011

It’s springtime in Iqaluit! You might not know it with how cold the wind chill has been for the past week, but the biggest sign of its arrival is the annual week-long spring festival known as Toonik Tyme. The festival has been happening in Iqaluit since 1965. It is meant to welcome to coming of longer days and to usher out the bitter cold winter. Perhaps it will herald a return to a more regular blogging schedule for me us as well.

Today is the first official day of the Toonik Tyme, marked by the opening ceremonies being held at the curling rink tonight. The next seven days will be full of traditional and not-so traditional activities, including igloo building, and tea and bannock making contests, snowmobile races, dogsled races, craft shows, a country foods fair, hockey and basketball tournaments, and concerts. There will be so many things to do and see, especially for noobs like Ian and I.

We’ll also find out who the Honorary Toonik is this year. Every year, an individual is selected to preside over the event. Past Tooniks have included former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Prince Charles, and various Greenlandic officials. More recently however, local individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the community have received the honour.

We’re hoping to get out to a lot of events, and will be volunteering at one or two as well. Hope to have lots of pictures for you all to see in the coming days!

Show some love for Iqaluit’s 4 year old, completely volunteer, non-profit organization by Liking us on Facebook. The IHS only exists because of the tireless dedication of its staff and the continuous generous support of the community. There is no government funding for this much needed operation so the greatest ways you can help is by spreading the word and/or volunteering.

There’s a popular misconception with the term volunteer. When people hear it they immediately think of cleaning kennels, feeding and walking dogs and general grunt work. While this is true in some instances volunteering is so much more expansive than just that. Volunteering is offering something – anything – to the organization out of the kindness of your heart. It can be as simple as giving a fellow volunteer a lift to the shelter or as personal as sponsoring just one of the many adorable pups currently in-house.

Every volunteer dedicates time according to what they can offer. We all have 9 – 5 jobs just like the rest of you so we know how precious time can be. An hour of time, a care ride, a small donation, an offer of a free service – these are but small acts that can have a monumental effect. Imagine 100 people chipping in an hour’s worth of their time. That’s an incredible amount of time to do so much. For more information send us a message or write on our wall on Facebook.

Animal cruelty is a very real problem up here. People tend to turn a blind eye to the indecencies shown to these loving creatures. Many are shot on sight in order to control the population while others simply die from neglect and abuse. There are no laws protecting them – only the IHS – so please show your support.